How often did lightning storms occur? Rino was sure that the odds were low in this world. Hence, he sent some fairies as scouts to patrol the mountain range. The Genesis Tree birthed some new fairies in his absence, so Town Zera's population was slowly increasing.

Yet, on the third day after receiving his new main quest, Rino was interrupted by Mutt's howling. Slightly annoyed that the sabre tooth wolf's calls disrupted his grand apiary design planning, Rino left his study to check on him.

"What in the…"

It was hard to believe it, but right before Rino's empty eye sockets, there was a flash of light in the distance. Surely that couldn't be it?

"My lord!" the fairy on patrol came flying back in a hurry. There was a twinkle in her eyes. "There are trolls fighting!"

Rino hurriedly mounted Mutt and ran to the location where the flashes of light came from while asking for more details.

Apparently, there were only trolls but no giants. What were the lightning flashes caused by if the trolls were not fighting giants? Could they be fighting something else then? The thought made Rino wonder if he should remain hidden to observe the situation or lend them a helping hand. Trolls were not the most trustworthy creatures. They were usually dumb but had a lot of physical strength. More importantly, they were double-crossers and cowards.

Rino pulled up his newest daily quest.

===

Daily Quest #18

Objective: Expand Farm

0/10 Acres

Time Limit: 10 Days

Tutorial here.

Reward:  Abandoned Dwarven Mine Location

Penalty: Deduct 24 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.

===

With less than a week to prepare ten acres of new farmland, Rino needed all the help he could get. There wasn't much he could do now apart from borrowing limited labour from Noir Province. The sky palanquin was currently on its new trip to Spudville to collect the farming tool supplies. At the same time, the spectres and genesis fairies busied themselves preparing the new mana web array expansion and irrigation runes.

Usually, Rino would not worry about this sort of quest. He was more than capable of completing it before the deadline if he were still in Spudville. However, Town Zera was still almost barren. They barely had any infrastructure, and the population here was ten times lesser than what Rino had in Noir Province. It reminded him of the time he woke up with grave dirt in his mouth and founded Spudville. His first villagers were shadow goblins back then. However, even back then, he had more than ten goblins to assist him with tasks. He didn't have that many here, even if the ex-bandits were more powerful than goblins.

Rino could see it now. The flashes of light in the sky were truly lightning. Mutt was running as fast as he could, and Rino noticed something else as they became closer. There was not a single cloud in the night sky, but he could feel water droplets falling every now and then from above.

What was going on?

Approaching stealthily, Mutt disappeared into his master's shadow so that Rino could travel the rest of the journey on foot. He did not know if trolls looked the same as they did in his previous world, but Rino should be able to recognise them if they were still the same species.

The trolls the ex court magician knew from memory were usually grey-skinned with warts covering almost every inch. They smelled terrible, and many had hunched backs. The trolls he knew dressed scantily in only loincloths for public decency and the mercy of human eyes, but Rino knew trolls in their natural habitat wore nothing at all. Males were bald, and females had unkempt, tangled long hair.

If trolls weren't a carrier for various plagues and diseases from their lifestyle choices, Rino did not know what they were. Trolls weren't choosy eaters. They would eat anything from decaying bodies to trash that they found in sewers beneath cities. Hiding under the bridges was a way for them to find 'fresh meat', and often, human travellers were their favourite prey because humans were weaker than them and tasted better than animals.

As he climbed behind a huge boulder to press himself against it, Rino could hear the arguments coming from below in the distance. The growls and yowls sounded diabolic, but Rino knew they were chants for a simple magical spell. The spell was to summon rain used in tribal villages. The goblin shaman once demonstrated it with the goblins forming a circle to dance for rain.

Another lightning flashed, but the 'rain' did not get heavier. How were the trolls summoning rain when no rain clouds had gathered? Rino crawled closer and hid behind some broken rocks to get a better look.

Unsurprisingly, there was a troll shaman who was slightly better dressed than the other trolls. The trolls were very similar to the trolls he knew in his previous world, dressed in nothing but a loincloth. Females had slightly better hair as they tied it or braided it, even adorning it with dried twigs. The males were bald, but they had tattoos on their heads that looked very painful. 

He knew those 'tattoo' scars. Previously, Rino saw the tattooing process a slave merchant practised on a slave child. It was pure torture as the tattoo artist carved a pattern on the child's back with a knife deep enough for blood to drip but not pour. Then, saltwater was poured in every inch of that pattern as the child screamed until she fainted. Then, the wound was left to heal partially before it was repeated until the scars were thick enough and would never go away, creating a tattoo.

The trolls danced in a circle as lightning rained again and again. Some of them looked very tired, and Rino finally understood why they were calling for rain. According to the spectres, it hardly rained on the rocky mountains. Farming anything was close to impossible. Yet, it made no sense. None of this rain came from the clouds above. Where was the water coming from?

For twenty good minutes, Rino watched as the trolls danced. Some have collapsed from exhaustion, but the tribe was stubborn, unwilling to stop the ritual. He also noticed that these trolls were skin and bones. Their warriors did not look muscular. If anything, their ribcage and spines were prominent through their skin.

It finally clicked about thirty minutes after finding the trolls. The water was coming from the trolls' lifespan. The trolls who collapsed weren't just exhausted. They were dead. It amazed the lich how determined the trolls were to create rain from nothing. The water created was spread by the wind, and rain was just simple water summoning magic. There were no rain clouds to carry rain even after their summoning ritual, which explained the lightning strikes. Hence, these poor trolls made their own while continuing to summon rain, hoping that true rain would fall with enough water around.

A rather counterproductive effort if they asked Rino. However, the lich was an opportunist. Trolls were not very reliable in his previous world. He did not want to enlist backstabbers into his new town. Lazy bastards like Fowler were acceptable if they did what they had to do. Less intellectually capable followers like Mutt were fine as long as they continued to learn and improve themselves. Nobody was perfect. Rino did not expect them to be.

Waiting for the trolls to flop like flies took a long time. Rino wasn't sure how much longer it would take for the last three standing and hopping trolls to finally die from mana exhaustion. However, there were only two more hours until the sun rose.

To amuse himself, Rino counted the bodies. So far, he had fifteen female troll bodies and only eight male troll bodies. That gender difference made him wonder who was doing the real work in the village of trolls. The last three 'dancing' trolls were males, so maybe the gender gap wasn't too big. However, without any females left in the troll dancing circle, their village would be doomed anyway.

Children trolls were not seen in this circle, and Rino had an inkling they were hiding somewhere in this mountain with more troll villagers. Those who came tonight never stopped dancing, even if they knew they would die. They must be the chosen sacrifices for the village's future, and knowing the nature of trolls, they would come to collect these dead bodies to eat. 

Rino wasn't going to give them that pleasure. It was a finders keepers kind of world, and he had dibs staking out an entire night for them. Even if he had to burn a little in the sun, he would wait for the last three trolls to drop.

Oh, wait. Change that to the last two trolls because another one just bit the dust. Rino smirked. Dead trolls were better than living ones. At least he did not need to worry about feeding them or chide them about hygiene. Shadow trolls were also incapable of betraying him. If they have even a sliver of that thought, they can kiss goodbye to their souls.

It was perfect. Now, if only the last two trolls could quickly die because he did not want to murder unnecessarily.